Ken Singleton announces his retirement from YES Network

curly2

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 8, 2003
4,887
Always liked Singleton as a player and a broadcaster. Seems like a class act.
 

jon abbey

Shanghai Warrior
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
70,715
I never thought he was anything special as an announcer, but he tried to retire a year or two ago and YES cajoled him into doing 3-4 series for them this year, and he has been really great.
 

terrynever

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Aug 25, 2005
21,717
pawtucket
Underrated player on some overlooked Oriole teams. Boston, NY and KC seemed to grab all the attention in his day but Baltimore was tough. Singleton and Eddie Murray were switch hitters hitting together in the middle of the lineup. Singleton twice led the league in intentional walks. He knocked in 84 runs at age 36.
I knew Ken’s brother Fred, who ran track at Penn State in the early 1970s. If Ken had Fred’s speed, he would have been a superstar in baseball.
 

jon abbey

Shanghai Warrior
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
70,715
Yeah, he was a very good player, over 2000 career hits.
 

bankshot1

Member
SoSH Member
Feb 12, 2003
24,652
where I was last at
Singleton was a good guy and along with Kaat made listening to the YES broadcasts during the war years, more palatable.

And he was a good player on those good Os teams.
 

bsj

Renegade Crazed Genius
SoSH Member
Dec 6, 2003
22,774
Central NJ SoSH Chapter
My wife is a NYY fan. So I watch these games more than I would otherwise. This guy is solid. Very very good at what he does. One of the old school guys.

It's a big loss.
 

Mystic Merlin

Member
SoSH Member
Sep 21, 2007
46,769
Hartford, CT
I don’t think he’s anything special (though I admit Kaat’s shadow as a former YES color guy looms large for me), but he is a competent analyst and makes for good background listening when I find myself turning YES on. That counts for a lot when you look around and see things like the train wreck ESPN has with ARod as a color guy.

Too bad.
 

luckiestman

Son of the Harpy
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
32,620
Kenny and Kitty were great together. Paul O’Neill peppering these guys with questions was good listening. I don’t like the pbp guy or his radio show.
 

Deweys New Stance

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Jul 8, 2001
2,888
Here to Eternity
To echo a couple other posts, he was a very good, underappreciated player. Three days after Gil Hodges died, the Mets traded him in a 3-player package for Rusty Staub, and while Rusty was of course a fine player, Singleton was at least his equal if not better over the next few seasons (148 OPS+ in 1973) as well as 3 years younger. And then the Expos traded him (along with Mike Torrez) to Baltimore for a washed-up Dave McNally and Rich Coggins in an absolute steal of a deal for the O's.

As a broadcaster, I appreciated him for making the YES booth tolerable; always good when he was there and Kay wasn't.
 

joe dokes

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 18, 2005
30,239
He brings back some early baseball memories and an interesting trade. Singleton was one of the young players the Mets traded before '72 to get Rusty Staub from Montreal. Staub was pretty good for the Mets for a few years until they traded him to Detroit for Mickey Lolich. (unlike the guys they got for Nolan Ryan and Amos Otis -- the cooked Fregosi and Foy.). Singleton and the two others, Foli and Jorgensen, all had long careers, as did Staub. (somehow Foli played in all or part of 16 seasons with a career 64 OPS+). All 3 got cups of coffee with the Mets in the very late '68-'70 and all 3 played until '84 or '85. Staub played 23 years and retired after '85.
 

EvilEmpire

paying for his sins
Moderator
SoSH Member
Apr 9, 2007
17,178
Washington
I enjoyed listening to Kenny. Sort of an understated delivery, solid analysis, and of course peppered with lots of great memories from his playing days when I was a kid. Glad he came back for a few series this season.